In second grade, I did not steal an eraser.

I promise. But, despite that, a boy named Stefan is positive that I did. And yeah, that’s a pretty petty thing to hate someone over, but for a seven year old boy, the girl who sat next to him in class stealing his favourite football eraser is pretty much the end of the world. And for a seven year old girl who most certainly did not steal any dumb football eraser, being blamed for that type of crime was enough to send her over the edge. That’s what got the snowball rolling, but as it went on and on, things got bigger, more and more out of hand. More and more problems, disagreements, and just in general opposing forces - we got about as close to war as fifth graders could.

In seventh grade, my pencil case was purple.

It was purple and black, with silver zippers. One of the generic ones that you can get from any Walmart or Target type store. Pretty much every student has owned one at one point or another in their life, because they’re cheap and easy to come by. This shouldn’t have been a problem, but it turned out that it was. Because in seventh grade, I had science class 6th hour. I sat in the table by the door, the teacher's desk in front of me. Stefan sat next to me. My most memorable moments from that class included the time that he took my flower pen and stuck it in his mouth and sang Some Nights by FUN, and when he stole my pencil case.

That might have been okay, hey, he thought I deserved it, and maybe I did, but the way he decided to go about it is still easily one of the weirdest things that’s happened to me.

As I said, that pencil case was pretty generic, and they were available everywhere, to the point where Stefan happened to have the exact same one. There were obvious differences between the two bags, as his was full of graphite marks and mine was drawn on with sharpie when I was bored in class, but they had the same make and model. So when he switched them, of course I noticed. He must’ve dumped the contents and replaced it, because nothing was missing but the bag itself. I think I was too confused to ever ask him about it, and he never brought it up again.

Our rivalry continued into 8th grade year, but due to our lack of classes together, things went a bit quiet. There were still the occasional two-minute bicker if we ran into each other, and the sorta-dirty sorta-amused glares in the hallways. When the old Herschel backpack I’d used for years finally broke, a plan was set into motion.
My mother bought me a drawstring bag from Sports Authority, a brand new, sleek, black and white Nike bag - the same exact one stefan carried every day.

My mother, bless her, had no idea what she had began. But the moment she handed the new bag to me and told me to pack my stuff in it, I started laughing hysterically. This was before the brilliant scheme was born, and long before it was put into action. But it stirred things up. The next day, my friends joked that me and my “best friend” were matching. The hallway glances went from amused to annoyed. Things grew a bit more heated again. When I told my cousin Jordyn about the story of the purple pencil case, we fantasized about having the last laugh. When we realised our friend Faith had homebase with him, those fantasies quickly turned into military-style precision planning. We plotted for weeks, down to the day. It was June, not long before school let out for the year. Just enough time to watch his confusion at what had happened to his bag, but too long that we could get into trouble if he choose to prosecute us.  He couldn’t confront me about it if he didn’t see me for a summer after that, and even if we did happen to run into each other, I wouldn’t have the bag on me, he had no proof. We decided to do it mid-week, the entire day, we seemed to be holding our breath. And then, when homebase started, so did the clock, and we set ourselves into motion.

“Bathroom by the lunchroom!” I called over my shoulder at Faith as we made our way to our respected homebase classrooms. “3:07, don’t be late!”
“Okay!” she yelled back. “Wish me luck!”

I turned and started down the hallway towards my homebase, confused when I found the room to be empty. Frowning, I continued down the hallway towards the seventh grade wing, running into Alex on the way.
“Dudes, where’s our homebase meeting?” he asked, walking in pace with me.

“I have no idea.” I confessed, then remembered. “Aren’t we supposed to be with Wiske today, because Luka isn’t here?”
“Oh, yeah, so we gotta go to the gym.” Alex said, turning a corner. “Wait, come with me to my locker first.” I followed after him, keeping a close eye on the time. 3:00. Alex opened up his locker and grabbed his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder.
“You should let me use your planner.” I said.
“What, why?” he asked, looking at me.
“I need to sign a pass at 3:07 to-” I cut myself off, thinking. “Well. I just need it.” Alex looked at me skeptically, but I suppose after being my friend for as long as he had, he knew better than to ask questions. He handed me the planner, and didn’t press for explanation.
“Jordyn, Jordyn!” I called out her name towards the end of the hall, where she was walking to us. She ran over.
“Sup?” she asked, nodding at Alex and I.
“Bathroom at 3:07, the one by the lunchroom, very important, don’t be late.” I said, talking quickly, hyper aware that we were running out of time.
“Woah, why, what for?” Jordyn asked, confused.
“Stefan.” I said, locking eyes with her. Her face split into a grin.

“Gotcha.” she said.

“What the hell are you people talking about?” Alex asked. I waved a hand dismissively at him and continued down the hall towards the gym, walking faster now. I separated myself from Alex and headed over to the substitute teacher. 3:06. I signed a pass and all but ran to the bathroom, my heart beating fast.

I found Jordyn wandering the halls. She walked up to me.
“Which bathroom is it?” she asked, walking with me.
“Lunchroom.” I said, leading the way. “But we need to go to my locker first.”

Running past Jordyn’s homebase, I spun the dial on my locker and popped it open, taking my Nike bag from inside.
“You realise she probably didn’t do it, right?” Jordyn said pointedly. I nod, and slammed the locker shut. We both looked down at my bag. The two of us had prepped it this morning, spraying it with vanilla-scented perfume. Running on something between hope and fear, we made our way to the bathroom. When we got there, Faith was about to leave. She sighed when she saw us.

“Where have you been? I’ve been waiting here for like ever!” she demanded. I ignored her question and instead stared wide-eyed at the marker-stained, worn-out version of my bag she held in her eyes.
“Holy s***, you actually got it?” I all but screamed. Faith nodded quickly. Jordyn’s mouth formed an ‘o’, and then she grinned.

“Okay, okay.” Jordyn said. “Gotta do this quick, we’re running out of time.”
Using the small table in the corner of the bathroom, we dump the contents of Stefan’s bag, careful not to miss any of the pouches or pockets.
“What even is this stuff?” Faith asked, holding up a small container.

“No idea.” I said.
“Anything worth taking?” she asked.
“No!” I exclaim. “No, we can’t take anything inside, that’s not the point, we just want the bag.”
“Alright, fine.” Faith said, stuffing Stefan’s things into my bag, careful to put them back just as they were in his.
“Guys, hurry up!” Jordyn urged us.

“Hurrying.” I said, and then I pulled the drawstrings closed and handed the bag to Faith. She slung it over her shoulders and ran out, rushing to get back to homebase before stefan noticed his bag was missing. Jordyn and I stood in the bathroom for a moment. I picked up the now-limp bag and held it with shaky hands.

“Jesus Christ.” Jordyn breathed. We looked at each other and grinned victoriously, eyes shining.
“Dude, how the hell did that even work?” Jordyn asked once we were out of the bathroom, practically dancing down the halls.

“I have no idea.” I laughed. We split ways, agreeing to meet at the front after school to walk with Faith and Alex like usual.

When the final bell rang, I flew out of there like a bat outta hell, holding the new bag in my arms to my chest. I run to catch up to Alex and Jordyn and Faith, who were standing in a small circle in the front of the school. Homefree. We burst out the doors and walk fast down the street, relishing in the glory of the battle we’d won.

“You don’t understand the significance of this!” I said to Alex, tossing the bag in the air and catching it in my arms again as we walked. I’m not even quite sure that we understood the significance of it ourselves, but we grinned at each other with triumph dancing in our eyes, happy with our prize.

Torn and tattered with marker stains and pencil stabs, but to us, it looked like it was made of gold.